This is a suberb palace-and-park ensemble, one of the finest examples of Russian architecture of the late eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, built as a summer residence for the Russian emperor Paul I and his family. The park is one of the largest landscaped parks in Europe, and inside the palace is no less impressive. The Pavlosk collections themselves are closely connected with the trip of their owners to Europe in 1781-1782. They visited the workshops of well-knows artists, where they ordered and acquired paintings, furniture, bronze articles, silk fabrics, china services, etc. They brought back to Russia a large number of antique sculptures from Italy, as well as gifts from European royal courts. The Museum also displays an excellent collection of portraits created by Russian artists and a number of Pavlovsk landscape paintings and drawings. Based on the evidence at Pavlovsk, there is a special museum within the palace that looks at the history of the Russian interior.

    The palace was occupied by the Germans in the second World War and burnt down when they left. It has taken 50 years to restore Pavlosk to its former glory, and details of the restoration are on display inside the palace itself.